Possible Shell Rot

Nicoletheforth

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Hi everyone! I have a young yellow foot tortoise and red foot tortoise (both about 2 inches long) that have something wrong with them and I'm not sure what it is. I noticed about a week ago that my red foot had a super soft tummy so we took him and the yellow foot to the vet. Long story short, they're both very soft and the red foot is showing some pitting. They've both been to the vet a couple of times now, but my red foot is still getting worse after about a week of treatment. What I'm doing:
-tank is disinfected every day
-substrate is changed daily (am using carpet so they're not sitting on damp substrate)
-keeping the humidity low about 30-50%
-they are getting betadine scrubs once a day
-amacacin injections every 72 hours
-baths every 72 hours
They're eating and are acting normally but im wondering if there's anything else I could be/should be doing?? I really don't want to lose my munchkins :(

Side note: the yellow foot was a rescue so I know she's skinny and has poor shell quality etc.image.jpgimage.jpg image.jpgimage.jpg
 

lismar79

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I had thought that soft shells were from a lack of calcium.... hopefully some one will answer soon.
 

tortdad

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I see no she'll rot on these torts. They look perfectly normal to me.
 

tortdad

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Some soft shell (mainly the bottom) is normal in babies. Be careful with the betidine. You're suppose to use it once to kill the fungi then use anti fungal cream. The betidine kills the new new growth too.

Give us more detail about what you feed, substrate, temps, type of heat/lights....ect ect
 

Yvonne G

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I don't see any shell rot on those babies.

Baby tortoises' plastrons have a bit of a give to them for about their first year. What hardens them up is vitamin d3 (sunshine) and calcium. The calcium must have the UVB/vitamin d3 from the sun (or an expensive light) in order to work.

Your babies look fine to me. Do you offer calcium and sunshine?
 

Yvonne G

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...and how lucky are you to have TWO babies with abnormal scutes. I LOVE the abnormal scutes.
 

Nicoletheforth

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Thanks so much for the compliments, they are totall sweethearts. They have a UVB light and get calcium d3 on all of their food. I had them on cypress until this started happening, now they're on carpet so they're not soaking their tummys. Cool side of the tank is 80 warm is 90. There is for sure something wrong with them though, the red foots shell has started puckering and is developing dents especially along the sides. They REALLY soft, pretty much the texture of human skin and they weren't like this before, it's something that's developed in the last week. I'm using the betadine at the advice of my vet? Also the yellow foot is mostly soft on her top shell. And there's an awful smell coming off the red foot.
 

Yvonne G

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If you're using those darned coil or 'u' shaped compact fluorescent bulbs, they hardly put out any UVB.
 

Yvonne G

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Is it a long tube or the short "U" shaped tube?
 

Yvonne G

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I think your light might be the problem. Not enough UVB to help the calcium

Try to get them out into the sun for an hour or so a day.
 

Nicoletheforth

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Isn't it unusual that this problem would come up all of s sudden though? And there are symptoms of shell rot on the red foot for sure
 

crimson_lotus

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How far away is your UVB light from the tortoise? If too far they won't work. Also, they lose potency after 6 months. They still emit visible light but no UVB.

Also, careful if you're housing those two together. When they get older, the yellow is going to be MUCH larger than the red. Yellowfoot males are also very territorial.

And I see no fungus on the red. I'm very surprised they're doing injections on such little guys, that could be very stressful.
 
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Nicoletheforth

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How far away is your UVB light from the tortoise? If too far they won't work. Also, they lose potency after 6 months. They still emit visible light but no UVB.

Also, careful if you're housing those two together. When they get older, the yellow is going to be MUCH larger than the red. Yellowfoot males are also very territorial.

And I see no fungus on the red. I'm very surprised they're doing injections on such little guys, that could be very stressful.
The UVB bulb is probably about 10 inches away from them. They're housed together, the red foot is a male the yellow foot is female. They're doing injections because it's been super aggressive, and the red foot was allergic to the oral antibiotics
 
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